Vacation advice needed!

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Elizastaci

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On Monday my family and I are leaving for Florida for vacation. Even though we live in St. Louis, my parents like driving, so we’ll be spending eighty thousand hours in the van getting there, stopping in Atlanta the first night. Okay, more like twelve hours, but still!

Anyway. Can anybody recommend some really good novels to my sister & me?? I am an avid reader, especially on long drives, because weirdly reading seems to prevent me from getting motion sickness, which is way strange, because it does the opposite in most people.

So that would really really help. Thanks, everyone!! 🙂
 
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Elizastaci:
On Monday my family and I are leaving for Florida for vacation. Even though we live in St. Louis, my parents like driving, so we’ll be spending eighty thousand hours in the van getting there, stopping in Atlanta the first night. Okay, more like twelve hours, but still!

Anyway. Can anybody recommend some really good novels to my sister & me?? I am an avid reader, especially on long drives, because weirdly reading seems to prevent me from getting motion sickness, which is way strange, because it does the opposite in most people.

So that would really really help. Thanks, everyone!! 🙂
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No offense, but that’s like walking into McDonald’s and saying I’m hungry what should I eat!?

::Blank stare from pimply teen behind the counter::

😃

What types of reading do you like?

Love stories, mysteries, historical fiction, christian fiction?

Actually, my first comment would be to get a bunch of CLASSICS from your local library and start reading those.

Moby Dick
Pride and Predjudice
Tale of Two Cities
Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
The Great Gatsby
Catch-22

We all SAY we’re going to read them, but we rarely find time to.

Here’s your chance.
 
More information needed! What are some examples of books you have read? This will make it easier to make a recommendation. Listing the genre would be also helpful.

Or you can visit your favorite online bookstore and type in an author or book title and see if there is a suggestion. It is usually stated like this “Customers who bought this also bought…”.
 
Oops. Yes, my original post was dramatically unspecific. I am new at this message board thing.

I’m looking for modern, fun novels. I’ve actually read most of the classics, and loved them, esp. Jane Austen.

So fun modern fiction, but nothing really dirty or violent. Just keep in mind that I’m 18, really. 😃
 
Have you read JRR Tolkien? CS Lewis? They both have works that are quite religious and fun.

I like Maeve Binchy novels. They are about families and are a little deeper- but good reads

Then there are sci fi books like Dune, and authors like Tad Williams

Fantasies like Redwall (which is about mice based in an abby- it too is quite christian) it’s for children and adults alike!

Then there’s mysteries:

Lillian Jackson Braun- writes novels where the main characters beloved cats always find a way to help him figure out the mystery

Caleb Carr books are good too- The Alienist (1800’s name for the forensic psychologist)

Children’s classics if you haven’t already read them are fun too

Anne of Green Gables,
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Misty of Chincoteague (series)

I also like the above poster’s advice of going onto Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com and just start browsing. When something hits your fancy, you can browse for “also purchased” or “similar authors”. Maybe you can even find a novel or two that has your vacation destination as the location the story takes place. That might make it more engrossing!

Have fun on vacation!
 
TV (Bart Simpson):
My Life as a Ten-Year-Old Boy
Nancy Cartwright

Civilization:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Society
Jared Diamond
Mostly recommended by college professors. This is not a text book!

History
A Brief History Christianity
Bamber Gascoigne
 
One thing we did our last long car trip was find some books on cassette (or CD) and listen as a family to a couple of novels, as well as some humor. It added a lot to helping the miles roll by.

PS - We didn’t buy any. We used the local library.
 
well your timing is certainly lousy for heading to Florida, hope you get there well after the effects of Dennis. they have ordered tourists to evacuate. I have been in truck stops where you can pick up books on tape, and drop them at the next stop, just like a lending library. If I drive to Ohio I have Threshold of Hope and some EWTN tapes to listen to.
 
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pnewton:
One thing we did our last long car trip was find some books on cassette (or CD) and listen as a family to a couple of novels, as well as some humor. It added a lot to helping the miles roll by.

PS - We didn’t buy any. We used the local library.
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I was going to recommend that too- that’s what we do! But she said she needed the actual reading to settle any car sickness.

Nothing worse than 12 hours of car sickness to ruin a vacation…

🙂
 
Thanks for all the wonderfully helpful suggestions- you guys rock!!! :blessyou:
 
I am sorry I do not know much modern lit, I love the classics!

My ultimate is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Try reading it from her perspective at the time, it means a whole lot more. Just before writting the book, she had given birth to her son, so she is a little post-partumn, and she has been trapped in a house with her husband and a few close friends for awhile due to bad weather when she composes the story. Remember she is writting in the British Romantic era, just as the middle class is starting to form due to the industrial growth of the past few years. (See any connections yet???) 😉

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables!!! or Hunchback of Notre Dame. My most favorite musical is Les Mis!

If you want something really deep try Dante’s Inferno, Paradisio or Purgatorio, or Milton’s Paradise Lost

Anything from Shakespears! Particularly Mid Summer’s Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, or Much Ado about Nothing! 👍

Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women!
Stevenson’s Treasure Island
Jules Vern - Around the World in 80 days

George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I think she also wrote The Bluest Eyes.

Thorton Wilder’s Our Town
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

Ok, I know I am a little hard hitting here, but what do you expect from an Eng Lit major in college with a focus on British writers. 😃

And hey, 12 hours is not bad! I am getting ready to visit my family with two little ones under 6 and it takes 15-18 hours to get there! We take a long stop at McD playland at dinner 😃 ! But to visit my in-laws it is 24-26 hours.(oh darn, oopps did I say that :p)

So, as you can see, modern lit is far from the brain, I am currently reading Charlotte’s Web. I am debating on The Chronicles of Narnia for our trip in a few weeks (on tape while we drive to cut down on movie marathon!!!)
 
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Shiann:
No offense, but that’s like walking into McDonald’s and saying I’m hungry what should I eat!?

::Blank stare from pimply teen behind the counter::

😃

What types of reading do you like?

Love stories, mysteries, historical fiction, christian fiction?

Actually, my first comment would be to get a bunch of CLASSICS from your local library and start reading those.

Moby Dick
Pride and Predjudice
Tale of Two Cities
Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
The Great Gatsby
Catch-22

We all SAY we’re going to read them, but we rarely find time to.

Here’s your chance.
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Great suggestion Shiann. I’ve been doing this myself. Last Summer, I read “The Time Machine”, “Swiss Family Robinson”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, and all of the books in the “Anne of Green Gables” series. This summer I’m reading “Pride and Predjudice”, and have just started re-reading “Jane Eyre”. They aren’t considered “classics” for nothing!!!
 
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puzzleannie:
well your timing is certainly lousy for heading to Florida, hope you get there well after the effects of Dennis. they have ordered tourists to evacuate. I have been in truck stops where you can pick up books on tape, and drop them at the next stop, just like a lending library. If I drive to Ohio I have Threshold of Hope and some EWTN tapes to listen to.
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Where are you going in FL? We were on the tail end of the last hurricane, I cant’ remember her name??? on our trip to Disney last Sept. Everyone laughed but we literally drove straight for it from Delaware down the coast and, of course we caught a tiny bit of a thunderstorm in Sourth Carolina, cause we spent the night in Savannah, as it was making landfall across FL. but as long as you get there the day after the storm you will be fine, as long as Dennis isn’t too huge. The beaches will probably be pretty torn up for a few days, though. I have weathered many hurricanes, including my first, Opal, a catagory 3 (almost 4) in 1995, the eye passed right over my apt. Dennis will have passed over by the time you get there. You don’t want to be there for a BIG storm, though, or vacation right after a big storm the likes of Andrew or Camille, obviously. Any time you plan a trip to the coast during this time of year until late OCT you risk a hurricane.
 
We’re spending a few days in Orlando and then a few at Cocoa Beach. I’m totally looking forward to it, but I really REALLY hope we don’t get caught in a hurricane.

Does it storm every afternoon down there? I’ve actually never been.
 
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